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Saturday, 17 March 2012

Asian shares steadied on Friday while the dollar took a breather after its recent broad rally spurred profit-taking,with some investors wondering if a fresh batch of encouraging economic data would put further upward pressure on U.S. yields.

A rise in Treasury bond yields after recent strong economic data reflected investors betting that the Federal Reserve may be more aggressive and tighten monetary policy sooner than anticipated, or at least push further stimulus off the table.

The dollar fell for a second straight day, snapping a rally that had taken it to a one-month peak versus the euro. Tame U.S. inflation data released in the morning prompted investors to rethink expectations of higher interest rates.